In a well known system of stereoscopic imaging, transparent stereo image pairs are arranged around the periphery of a disk. The stereo images are viewed by inserting the disk in a binocular viewer. Successive image pairs are viewed by rotating the disk in the viewer, for example, by actuating a lever that engages the disk and rotates the disk by two image widths. Such a stereoscopic imaging system is widely available and sold under the trademark View.sub..RTM. -Master. FIGS. 7-11 illustrate the construction of the conventional View.sub..RTM. -Master disk. As shown in FIG. 7, the conventional View.sub..RTM. -Master disk includes 14 film chips generally designated 10 and as shown in FIG. 8 a disk formed from six layers of laminated paper and foil 12. The film chips 10 representing 7 stereo image pairs 14a, b-26a, b are made from images exposed and developed on 16 mm movie film, and then cut into chips. The paper and foil disk 12 includes four layers of paper 28, 30, 32, and 34, and two layers of foil 36, 38. The paper and foil is prelaminated into two units of paper-foil-paper prior to assembly of the disk. Windows 40 are cut in the paper and foil for mounting the stereo pairs. FIG. 9 shows how the film chips are mounted in the paper and foil laminated disk 12. FIG. 10 is an exploded cross sectional view of a completed View.sub..RTM. -Master disk taken along line 7--7 in FIG. 9 showing how the film chips 14a, b are mounted in the windows 40 that are cut in the laminated disk. Referring back to FIG. 8, one of the weak points of the conventional View.sub..RTM. -Master disk is the thin web of material 42 between the interior corners of the windows 40 in the laminated disk 12. Because this web of material 42 needs to be at least greater than some minimum dimension, the size of the stereo image for a given number of images, e.g. 14 images separated by a given stereo separation x, e.g. 65 mm is limited to some maximum dimension, e.g. 10.times.12 mm. Although a 65 mm separation between the images in a stereo pair is comfortable for the average adult, a separation of 55-58 mm is more appropriate for the average child. Unfortunately, if the separation is reduced from 65 mm to 55 mm, the webs 42 become so thin that the disk becomes too fragile for normal use. If the size of the images are reduced, resolution is sacrificed. FIG. 11 illustrates the three degrees of freedom X, Y and .theta. in which each of the film chips 14a and b must be precisely located. It will be appreciated from the foregoing description that the apparatus for assembling the stereo image disk must be quite complex with many moving parts. One object of the present invention is to provide an improved construction for a stereo image disk that avoids the problems noted above. It would be desirable to be able to produce huge quantities of the stereoscopic disks, for example for advertising purposes. Unfortunately, the cost of the assembly equipment is prohibitive for producing one time large batches of the elements.
Stereoscopic systems are also known in the prior art which employ special stereoscopic cameras to capture stereo image pairs on a film strip. Stereo image chips are punched from the developed film strip, using a special punch designed for use with the camera, and the resulting film chips are manually inserted into a special mounting disk with a tweezer like tool. The special mounting disk is made from a sheet of metal covered on both sides with sheets of paper. See the description of the Stereo Realist system discussed at pages 68-70 in "The World of 3-D" by Jac G. Ferwerda published by 3-D Book Productions, The Netherlands. The Stereo Realist system used color reversal film, which has a very narrow exposure latitude and therefore requires precise exposure control. The cameras were generally expensive to manufacture and the related cutting and mounting hardware was expensive and complicated to use. It would therefore be desirable to provide amateurs with the ability to produce their own stereoscopic images, in particular, stereoscopic disks, that could be viewed in a View.sub..RTM. -Master viewer, but it will be appreciated that cameras having sophisticated exposure control and the production of the View.sub..RTM. -Master disks as noted above is prohibitively expensive and difficult for all but the most dedicated amateur. It is therefore the object of the present invention to provide an improved stereoscopic system and particularly an improved system for producing stereoscopic disks that overcome the shortcomings noted above.